Alex Stone was interested in magic as a young child, performing tricks for his father and putting on shows at birthday parties. He writes, “For me, discovering the world of magic was like finding my own island of misfit friends, a place where everyone was special in the wrong way.” Stone congregated with like-minded peers, joined magic clubs, and in his words, “was nerdy and unsocialized, a dweeb who wanted to talk about biology and play with his chemistry set while the other kids were playing foursquare.” Magic, it seems, was the logical extension of an inquiring mind and perhaps, finding social acceptance in an otherwise slightly out of kilter world.

In Fooling Houdini Stone details his magic obsession through a narrative tour of grizzled street performers, three-card monte hustlers, a blind “touch analyst,” and visits to a Magic Castle, a kind of graduate school for prestidigitation. He spends countless hours, and money, acquiring books about magic, odd paraphernalia, gadgets, just about anything that will make him a better magician. He performs his magic using cards, coins, people’s possessions, and the occasional small animal. But his personal accounts of learning and refining magic are only part of the story. Where Stone really succeeds is educating the reader about the inner workings of magic. He lets us in on the mechanics of several familiar tricks, reveals adroitly how cognitive illusion is at the heart of most magic, and delves into mathematical probability statistics to explain care shuffling maneuvers. Turns out that cognitive neuroscience research, which Stone experiences first hand, tells us a great deal about how illusions are created and why most of us are deceived by the hands of a skilled magician.

Fooling Houdini is a fun read, wonderfully written, and highly instructive even if you are not impressed by disappearing objects or impossible prognostication. “Studying magic,” Stone concludes, “ultimately leads you to ponder some of life’s deepest mysteries.” This is precisely where the book takes you.

© 2014 James K. Luiselli

James K. Luiselli, Ed.D., ABPP, BCBA-D  is a psychologist affiliated with May Institute and a private-practice clinician. Among his publications are 11 books and more than 300 book chapters and journal articles. He reviews books for The New England Psychologist.